11 August 2019 - Based on the analysis carried out at the end of 2018, the total tax debt amounted to 397,4 million EUR, which is over 190 million EUR less compared to the last three years said Miomir M. Mugoša, head of the Montenegrin Tax Administration as Cafe del Montenegro reported.
“When it comes to the structure of tax debt, the largest part of due liabilities refers to liabilities from taxing salaries, accounting for 40 per cent. However, it is important to mention that a significant decrease in the amount of this tax debt was recorded last year, which points out to the fact that efforts of the Tax Administration and other services to improve tax discipline on the labor market are gradually giving results. Having in mind that over 200 million euros of tax debt refers to taxpayers who have been considered active according to the criteria of Ministry of Finance, the Tax Administration is doing everything it can to collect the largest part of tax claims. On the other hand, a significant part of tax debt belongs to taxpayers who have not been active at all for years and have not been generating income as well, so literally there is no way we can collect tax from this category,” Mugoša explained.
When asked how the Tax Administration is going to collect a 21 million EUR tax debt incurred by the national airline carrier, Montenegro Airlines, and if there is a possibility not to be able to collect it at all Mugoša said that Montenegro Airliner was paying tax liabilities during the whole period of accumulating tax debt.
“First of all, I have to stress that a taxpayer Montenegro Airlines was paying tax liabilities during the whole period of accumulating tax debt, as much as it could due to some business difficulties. However, in the period from 2012 to 2018, the Tax Administration managed to collect around 10 million euros and since then, the company has been regularly paying due liabilities. Taking into account the above-mentioned, as well as the data on the continuous increase in the number of passengers and revenues of this taxpayer thus pointing out to the certain financial potential, I believe it is in the interest of the State and our society to consider ways for ensuring the company’s survival, and that is why this matter will be resolved by the Ministry of Finance, i.e. the Government of Montenegro in due course,” concluded Mugoša.
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